


Dream Me the Stars

by AgentCoop



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Death, Dreams, Hospitals, M/M, Passing over, Sick Character, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:41:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23431108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentCoop/pseuds/AgentCoop
Summary: Ash knows he has to see Eiji one last time...An alternate take on Episode 23
Relationships: Ash Lynx & Okumura Eiji, Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji
Comments: 7
Kudos: 77





	Dream Me the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Written for _Take Me to Where You Are_ | A Banana Fish charity zine

____ _ _

* * *

_“He’s on the tenth floor, room 1012,” Blanca had said. “Be back at midnight, Cinderella. That’s when the magic wears off.”_

_***_

Easing the door of room 1012 closed, Ash took a few steps forward towards the bed that stood in the center of the small room. Eiji lay on his side, already deeply unconscious. His arm and chest were bandaged, his breathing came in short, painful gasps, but his eyelids flickered in the way of someone deep in restful sleep.

“Eiji,” Ash whispered. Reaching out a hand, he carefully brushed back the hair from Eiji’s brow.

The room was silent and dark, save for the soft buzz of the hospital equipment. Beyond the window, the moon hid behind heavy clouds. Its bright luminescence was muted there, afraid to shine, unwilling to light up the small hospital room and divulge the secrets within.

Ash carefully climbed on to the bed, molding himself around Eiji’s body. His fingers fell against Eiji’s neck, grazing the soft flesh at his ear, at his cheek. The tubing of the IV was tucked against his skin, spreading in a complicated webbing all over his body. It moved with every breath Eiji took – whispering of permanency as the tubes tangled against the paleness of his skin.

Ash eased his hand back without jarring anything, resting his palm against his own chest, the back of his hand pressing against the curve of Eiji’s shoulder blades. Then, he relaxed, tuning out the electric hum of hospital, and letting the deep thump of Eiji’s heartbeat lull him to sleep.

There was nothing for a long while — just the fuzz of dreamscape gradually reaching out and taking hold, the clinical, sterile smells of the sick fading. Then, almost imperceptibly, this was replaced with the sound of water lapping at sand, and the soft hues of the sea, of the sun, of the coast. Eiji stood there, watching the waves come in, and in the way of dreams, this was nothing unusual.

“I found you,” Ash said.

Smiling — a sweet, glimmering thing — Eiji turned. “You found me,” he murmured, then held out his hand, gesturing to the horizon. “It is all ours right now. Anything you want. Anything you wish.”

This was cryptic, but Ash laughed, then opened his mouth to chase the bubbling sound and taste it on his tongue. “I want you to dream me the smallest sliver of the waning moon,” he said.

Eiji looked up to the perfect, blue sky and beamed. Then he blinked once, and night had fallen. The stars twinkled, the waves roared in the menacing way of the sea when cloaked in the invisibility of night, and high above them, a fingernail of moon sliced into the sky.

Ash stepped up and wrapped his arms around Eiji, warming him, touching him. He buried his nose in the dip of his neck, pressed a kiss into his collarbone, letting the shivering response travel back through shared conduit. “It’s ominous this way,” he whispered.

The clouds moved across the sky as though coaxed by his words — thick, and black, and sinister.

“Yes,” Eiji agreed, though his shoulders were limp and relaxed. “But I think ominous is right for our beginning.”

“True.” Ash replied.

A cold wind blew in from across the waves, across the ocean, from a land neither could see or imagine. Particles of sand rose up around them, burning at Ash’s face and hands. “We should go,” he said.

“It is the only ___Kogarashi___ ,” Eiji replied. “ _ _ _The wind before the winter comes.”___

___Kogarashi___. Ash had read about this once, in a thick book that he’d pulled from a shelf in Dino’s library. A gust of wind across the landscape of Japan. The harbinger of winter. Ash gripped him tighter, watched their breath go out in puffs of condensation. “I want you to dream me Izumo,” he said. “In the springtime.”

There was only a hint of a moment, and then they were standing on a dock, the water sloshing underneath their feet and the gentle, heaving sway of the wood calling for damp footprints to imprint on its surface.

“It smells of fish,” Ash remarked.

“It smells of home,” Eiji said. “You are an uncultured American who does not understand what it is to be alive.” He tilted his head at this, grinning.

Ash met with his own grin, loud and boyish. “Is that so?” he questioned, tossing his head back and letting the breeze brush the blond hair from his eyes.

Then he pushed Eiji off the dock.

As Eiji spit out a mouthful of water, Ash burst with joyous laughter, and then the scene shifted once more, silently, perfectly woven threads patching the moment together. Now they were laying head to head in a field of wheat, the September crunch of the grass itching at their necks. A starling cried from somewhere distant, its trilling call falling to earth, then picked up again – returned by a second, and a third, and a fourth.

“I don’t know this place,” Eiji said. His hand danced in the sunlight, stroking at the thick blades of grass, twirling the strands between his fingers. “It is something new.”

“Something ours,” Ash murmured. “Not an ominous beginning but something warm. Something loved.” He reached for Eiji and the pads of their fingertips met for an instant. He traced a finger down the triangular lines of Eiji’s palm, reveling in the newness of his skin. Overhead, the sun beat down, just warm enough for a trickle of sweat to travel the curve of his neck.“I think I want to kiss you,” he said.

“It is almost time,” Eiji answered. “They are calling.”

His eyes were on the clouds, far away, speaking to the very air around them.

Then, with a sigh of breath, Eiji rolled to his front and pushed himself up on his elbows, looking down at Ash.

Reaching out, Ash cupped Eiji’s chin with a hand. “I want to kiss you,” he repeated. “You look so golden in September sun. Like something I’ve always wanted yet never knew I could have.” He watched the curve of Eiji’s lips, watched the way his nose flared as he breathed. “The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.”

“Are you quoting Hemingway to me?”

Ash’s tongue tingled with it, wanting something more. “If I were?”

Eiji bent down and their lips met for a single second in the autumn warmth, eyes open, watching everything.

Ash blinked and it was dark again. They were standing, feet pressed against the edge of the boardwalk rail. The pounding of the waves was once more loud at their ears – relentless and unearthly and frighteningly close.

“The moon is gone,” Ash whispered. He closed his hand around Eiji’s and squeezed. “I don’t like it here. Dream me the stars, Eiji. Dream me the wheat, or the sound the world makes when it starts to snow.”

“You are a romance,” Eiji laughed.

“A romantic,” Ash corrected. The breeze whispered past their faces, ominous and dangerous. “I am yours,” he vowed.

“You are mine.” This was quieter now, a weighted sadness permeated the syllables. “I would like to walk on the shore. To feel the sand between my toes.” He pulled away.

“I’m tired, Eiji,” Ash called. “It’s freezing. Come back and rest a while instead.”

Eiji laughed. “You are tired?” he called over his shoulder. “I am restless with it! Can’t you hear the call of the water?” He danced further away, lithe and graceful.

Groaning, Ash pushed back from the railing. “Wait, I’ll come. Just wait a second!” Ash turned to walk down the wooden slats, but his movements were muddy now, the air was thickly turbid.

“No,” Eiji murmured. His voice was so quiet against the angry sound of the waves, but lilted to Ash on the back of the wind. “It is my turn to lead.”

“Eiji!” Ash called. “Eiji, wait!”

The waves beat at the shore and the wind roared, suddenly fierce. Then, swift as a passing thought, Eiji slipped away, fraying in the darkness of the night. The conduit burst quietly, floating like dandelion fluff in the wind, and suddenly there was an openness, an emptiness.

“Wait!” Ash cried, and in shouting the word, he woke himself. His mouth tasted of salt, of the sea, and there was a new sound, a frantic beeping from the monitor next to him. He quieted, tried to time his breathing with the rise and fall of Eiji’s chest, but Eiji lay still, quiet, a husk of memory.

He needed to leave. The beeping kept up next to him, frantic, and loud, and deadly. “No,” Ash whispered, his lips brushing the skin at the back of Eiji’s neck.

He was still warm.

A patter of raindrops began to fall against the window.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Twitter](http://twitter.com/agentcoop1)  
> 


End file.
